After the Minnesota Timberwolves dismantled the Denver Nuggets 106-80 in Game 2, Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards fielded a question from the Pioneer Press’ Jace Frederick about how much it meant to the team that Finch was pushing through the pain and made the trip to Denver.
“It definitely meant a lot,” Towns responded immediately. “As someone who just came off surgery on my knee, and it was nowhere near as major as his, I can imagine the doctor told him not to travel and not to fly, and Finchy said, ‘Hell naw, I’m gonna be there for my team.’
“The leader of our team,” Towns continued as Edwards nodded and started to smile, “When you have someone who’s willing to fight like that, of course, his troops are willing to fight just as hard for him.”
Edwards chimes in, “That’s the perfect answer.”
Much has been made about Minnesota’s success after going up 2-0 in Denver. However, few people have explained what Finch is likely going through to be with the team during this emphatic playoff run.
In Game 4 against the Phoenix Suns, Mike Conley collided with Finch on the sideline. When Finch fell, his knee appeared to give out. As Finch hit the ground, he immediately grabbed at his right knee and let out a four-letter word that the cameras caught. Training staff surrounded Finch as they evaluated his knee. Before he was assisted to his feet, he gingerly walked off the court and to the back locker room.
Later that evening, reports surfaced that he had torn his patella. The following morning, that fear would be confirmed. Finch had surgery on Wednesday, May 1. After a successful procedure, reporters saw Finch on crutches at practice the next day. He had a postoperative visit Friday morning before flying out to Denver to join the team before their opening game against Denver on Saturday, May 4.
A physically reserved Finch sat on the sideline behind the Wolves bench as they won Game 1 of the series. On Monday, May 6, Finch remained seated along the bench but tested his knee more. On multiple occasions, he would get to his feet and give directions to the team or yell at the referees in Minnesota’s Game 2 win.
Finch has made something truly remarkable seem ordinary. Finch is not even a week out of major knee surgery and is coaching a team in the NBA playoffs.
To better understand this, we need to answer some questions. What is a torn patella tendon? How is it fixed? And what is Finch going through?
The patella tendon is a piece of connective tissue made up of cartilage that connects the patella (kneecap) to the tibia (shin bone). It gives the knee stability and helps specifically with extending your leg. Picture a person sitting in a chair, then going to stand up. The patella tendon and the thigh muscles assist in keeping the leg straight while going from a sitting position to a standing position. Needless to say, it’s a pretty important tendon. Below is a diagram of a knee with the patella tendon highlighted.
Fallas are the most common cause of rupturing or tearing a patella tendon, specifically falls where a person hyperextends their knee. Unfortunately for Finch, they are also most common in people who have played sports that require a lot of jumping, like volleyball and basketball.
Therefore, Finch was likely already at risk for patella tendinitis because he played basketball in college and overseas. Tendinitis is inflammation of the patella tendon and knee joint, and patella tendinitis is commonly known as jumper’s knee. It’s an injury that’s most common in people over 50. The fall Finch suffered could have caused an already inflamed tendon to tear, and due to his age, it likely caused it to tear fully.
While it hasn’t been reported as a complete or partial tear, when a person suffers from jumper’s knee, the patella essentially gets separated from the lower leg. That causes the quadriceps tendon, which attaches the patella to the quadriceps muscle (or the thigh), to pull the knee cap into the lower thigh muscle. For reference, when sitting in a chair, the patella points forward and out. With this tear, the patella would be on the lower thigh when sitting. Below is an MRI and X-ray of a patella tear, which further shows this. Notice how high the patella is compared to the normal diagram above.
If that image looks painful, that is because this injury is excruciating. As the tendon ruptures, muscle can be pulled from the bone, and the patella is snapped into the quadriceps muscle. While some people feel the initial tear and don’t have any pain with this injury, most of the cases cite severe near constant pain that increases, especially when walking.
Surgery is necessary for complete tears, which suggests Finch tore the tendon completely. As the tendon assists in extending the knee, it’s almost impossible to extend the knee without this tendon, making waking extremely difficult, pain aside. That results in the need for surgical repair. The tendon can be repaired if the torn sections can still be stretched and sutured together and anchored to the bones. However, the tendon must be reconstructed and reattached in some cases.
Regardless of the type of surgery, recovery takes a similar path, including wearing a knee brace that locks the knee in full extension for two weeks. Surgeons also typically place numerous staples to close an incision at the patella and the top of the tibia.
After the first two weeks, the staples can be removed, and the following four months are based on slowly restoring the knee’s range of motion so that it bends fully. The importance of gradual and slow recovery is imperative, as re-tearing the tendon can be extremely likely when not following the directions of the surgeon and physical therapist.
Pain management is imperative not only from the incisions but also from the pulling of the new tendon and the trauma it caused when it ruptured. Typically, recovery time for this injury is four months before pain fully subsides and six months before someone returns to their normal range of motion. However, it can be 12 to 18 months before the stability in the knee is restored. It is a long recovery that has many checkpoints to ensure it is safe and lowers the risks of complications.
“If he’s going to tell us to play through injuries and stuff like that,” Mike Conley told Frederick, “He better damn well be on that bench.” Conley obviously is saying this in jest, but Finch coached both games in Denver. The Wolves will be returning home for Games 3 and 4, and Finch will damn well be on that bench coaching the Timberwolves to the Western Conference Finals.
